TRENTON — Tony Mack has been accused of not coming to work much during the week, but he certainly was busy this weekend.

The embattled Trenton mayor released a long statement Sunday morning, in part calling the four City Council members who voted to reduce his salary a “rogue coalition” that is out to get him.

“Their efforts to denigrate the Office of Mayor will not succeed. Our roots of commitment remain firmly planted and we are more than prepared to deal with the winds of political theater,” Mack said in a statement.

On Friday, Mack vetoed the council’s ordinance to reduce his salary from $126,400 to $60,000. The ordinance would need five votes to override the veto, but got just four in Thursday’s vote.

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Mack’s three-page statement quotes various members of the council over the last six weeks in an effort to prove their real intentions when it comes to the salary reduction. The council’s ordinance states that the salary cut is for budgetary reasons, but Mack claims it is a political move only.

“I will NOT be a sacrificial lamb laid at the altar of dirty politics. Let’s call a spade a spade and recognize that this ordinance is not an act of fiscal prudence. This is about a failed recall attempt,” Mack said. “This is about certain Council members not being able to stand on their own record. This is about a mayoral race that is 18 months away. Shame on certain City Council for misrepresenting their intentions and misleading taxpayers.”

“Our City has very real issues that could use the same amount of attention and commentary that is dedicated to attacking the Office of Mayor,” Mack added.

Mack has certainly given the council reasons to be mistrustful.

Federal officials arrested Mack Sept. 10 on charges he conspired with others to extort $119,000 from a Hudson County developer. The mayor, who is free on $150,000 unsecured bail, has been under federal investigation since September 2010 and earlier this year had his home and City Hall office raided by the FBI.

That pending criminal case, as well as the citizens’ growing dissatisfaction with Mack’s governing, have made this a highly-charged issue in the city.

Still, the salary cut will not become law unless one of the three council members who voted against it — Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, Kathy McBride and Alex Bethea — change their mind at a future meeting.

When it comes to the “economic reasons” for reducing his salary, Mack posed the question of why the council had not proposed “similar reductions for City Council members and other senior management.”

Mack also said in the statement that there were 50 city employees who made more than the mayor’s salary of $126,460 last year. In addition, Mack said there were 103 city employees that made less than the Mayor’s salary but still made more than $100,000.

“If they are truly serious about delivering economic relief to City taxpayers then the sacrifice that they are calling for must be shared,” Mack said. “How do you ask someone to make a sacrifice that you yourself are not willing to make?”